Workers rescue “dog” from an icy lake only to discover it’s a wolf
When two Estonian men working on the Sindi dam on the Parnu River saw what they thought was a dog fall through the ice, they rushed to its rescue.
Breaking through the remaining ice to get to him, they created a path for the animal. Luckily, it was still strong enough to swim towards the shore. But it was freezing.
One of the men ran to a car to get a towel to dry him off and warm him up before loading him in and calling the local animal protection agency.
While it was early morning and a challenge to find anyone to take in the dog and help him, they did manage to find a clinic and the animal protection agency agreed to take care of the bill.
Speaking to the Estonian newspaper Postimees, Rando Kartsepp recalled the incident:
“We had to carry him over the slope. He weighed a fair bit.” And during his transport to a clinic: “He was calm, slept on my legs. When I wanted to stretch them, he raised his head for a moment.”
Only after taking the injured creature to a veterinarian did that find out that the animal they rescued was a wolf.
But it wasn’t even the vet that identified him, it was a local hunter who was familiar with the region’s wolves.
That’s when the vets decided they needed to confine the animal before it fully recovered in case its wild nature came to the fore.
In the beginning, he had his own room, but they decided he needed a muzzle and then a cage in order to keep workers safe while he recovered.
“At first, he was so done in for he didn’t resist at all. We simply kept him in this room. But once he started to get an idea of the situation, I felt things might quickly take a turn for the dangerous. We got him into a cage,” the head of the clinic, Tarvo Markson said.
Before it was clear whether the wolf would fully recover, the rescue organization contacted a local zoo and wildlife refuge to see if they could take in an injured wolf. Luckily, it wasn’t necessary.
But since the wolf was young (about a year old) and had no other injuries, it turned out not to be necessary because he was better within a day.
According to the vet who treated him, he had become so cold that he likely would have been stranded in the river until he died without the intervention of the workers.
The wolf was fitted with a GPS collar by researchers from the national environmental agency and was released back into the wild.
“We are so happy for the outcome of the story, and wish to thank all the participants – especially these men who rescued the wolf and the doctors of the clinic who were not afraid to treat and nurture the wild animal,” the agency said.
The agency’s Facebook post is also full of grateful citizens thanking everyone involved for not only rescuing the animal but setting him free back in the wild.
Be sure to scroll down to read the Estonian animal rescue organization’s original post about the incident.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.